Year 2 w/b 20th March
Date: 23rd Mar 2023 @ 5:09pm
Year Two have, once again, worked wonderfully this week.
On Monday, we reminded ourselves of the features of instructions as we explored some example texts in order to create an instructions toolkit. Having remembered that command sentences are a key feature of instructions, we learnt that the verbs used in these commands are known as ‘imperative verbs’. This prompted the return of one of our favourite games – verb charades! Following this exploration, the children wrote their own command sentences using imperative verbs, challenging themselves to make their sentences more exciting by including adverbs, conjunctions and adjectives in the commands. On Tuesday, our model text was revealed. We realised that this model text was a set of instructions for making slime! We picked out some ambitious vocabulary from the model text (transparent, consistency, viscous, flexible, knead, vibrant, vivid, durable, disastrous, experiment, precisely) and found synonyms for each word so that we could understand the meanings of the new vocab. On Wednesday, we enjoyed our ‘analyse’ day, picking out the following key features from our model text: questions, exclamations, commands, imperative verbs, adverbs, adverbials of time, conjunctions. On Thursday, we created own plan which will help us to write our own instructions next week to explain how to make pizza!
Our spelling rule this week has once again involved adding the suffix ‘ed’. This week, we learnt to ‘drop the e before adding ed’ (e.g. ‘like’ becomes ‘liked’ and ‘tickle’ becomes ‘tickled’). We also revised our two other rules for adding ‘ed’: doubling the final consonant before adding ed (e.g. ‘hug’ becomes ‘hugged’) and swapping the y for an i before adding ed (e.g. ‘try’ becomes ‘tried’).
This week in Collective Worship, we continued to explore our value of Hope. We listened to how Moses lead the Israelites out of the desert and reassured them God would provide for them when they were struggling. As part of our reflection task, children took a zip and as they zipped it up, they watched the teeth interlock together. As they pulled the two sides together, they prayed for a situation of conflict and thought about how the two sides could make peace.
In maths this week, we have been finishing our unit ‘Length and height’ where we have been learning how to order sets of lengths measured in centimetres or metres and use a range of methods to solve word problems involving length and height. On Wednesday, we started our new unit ‘Mass, capacity and temperature’. We have been learning how to use balance scales to compare the mass of two or more objects, and use chains of reasoning to order the mass of more than two objects. On Friday, we explored the use of standard units of mass (grams), and how they can measure these using both balance scales and weighing scales.
In history, we used our prior learning to help us to deepen our understanding of the Victorians and Queen Victoria. It was particularly interesting to find out how she used and changed Buckingham Palace. We were also able to draw lots of parallels between the improvements that Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth I made.
In science this week, we refreshed our knowledge on what things are alive, dead or never alive and discussed the question ‘Do all minibeasts like living in the same habitat?’ After this, we once again became nature detectives, exploring the playground to complete a microhabitat exploration and survey.
In art this week, we added detail to our Hannah Dunnet style artwork. We then used our favourite medium, watercolour to add beautiful shades. Next week, we will finish our designs by adding bible quotes.
In RE we investigated the life cycle of a butterfly and linked it with the Easter story. We made life cycle wheels and discussed how a caterpillar changing into a butterfly is like Jesus rising again.
On Thursday morning, we were delighted to be going for our class visit to St Oswald’s church. I am so incredibly proud of how fantastic they were, what incredible voices Year Two have! Despite the awful weather, they walked to and from church sensibly and showed our school value ‘Community’.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Monday for our last week of the term.
Miss Roxburgh and Mrs Taylor
